Winner's Dinners: Dear Lord, save me from a restaurant like this

Our columnist takes a walk down memory lane to see how Dino’s Italian restaurants have changed since the first one opened in the 1950s

Michael Winner and beeny-wearing Yohan at the back, join other diners at Dino's restaurant (TNL)
In the 1950s I had a tiny one-bedroom flat above an Indian restaurant in
Thurloe Place, South Kensington. On the right was a superb Polish
restaurant, the Silver Spur, owned by an old, monocled colonel.

On the corner of Exhibition Road a fat Italian mamma with a great personality
ran Dino’s. Her husband, Dino, lurked about, but she was the star. She
passed on and the restaurant moved round the corner by the Tube station.
Other Dino’s restaurants appeared in London, all similar to the 1950s
version, untouched by tarting-up.

I took my assistant Dinah to lunch at the South Ken Dino’s. Next to us sat a
young man in a wool beanie hat, reading. He had a pizza, but wasn’t eating.